Dialog

Status: Stable
Accessibility: Reviewed
Package: tenet-ui@0.5.0
Source: Dialog.tsx

import { Dialog } from 'tenet-ui';

Usage guidelines

When to use: a focused task or confirmation that must interrupt the flow — destructive confirmations, short forms, critical choices. For non-blocking feedback use a toast or Banner; for lightweight hints use a Tooltip.

Rules

It’s a controlled component: drive open and handle onClose (Escape, backdrop, and the close button all call it). Render your actions in footer.
Always pass a title — it’s the dialog’s accessible name. Add a description for context; it’s wired as aria-describedby.
Focus management is automatic: focus moves in on open, is trapped while open, and is restored to the trigger on close, and body scroll is locked. Don’t re-implement this with a position:fixed div.
For a destructive confirm, keep the confirming button variant="danger" and make the consequence explicit in the body.
Keep dialogs short. If it scrolls a lot or has many steps, it probably wants its own page.

Do / Don’t

✅ <Dialog open={open} onClose={close} title="Delete repository?" description="This can't be undone." footer={<><Button variant="invisible" onClick={close}>Cancel</Button><Button variant="danger" onClick={confirm}>Delete</Button></>}>…</Dialog>
❌ A hand-built overlay div — no focus trap, no scroll lock, no Escape, no restore.
❌ Using a dialog for a transient “Saved!” message — that’s a toast.

See also: Popover for non-modal surfaces, Banner and Toast for non-blocking messages; system guideline feedback has the decision table.

Examples

1 story for Dialog, open in Storybook

Default components-dialog--default

The full matrix (all args, controls, accessibility panel) is in Storybook.

Props

Prop	Type	Default	Description
`open` *	`boolean`	None	Whether the dialog is open.
`onClose` *	`() => void`	None	Called when the user requests close (Escape, backdrop, close button).
`title` *	`ReactNode`	None	Accessible title — also the visible heading.
`description`	`ReactNode`	None	Optional supporting description under the title.
`size`	`'small' \| 'medium' \| 'large'` DialogSize	`medium`	Width from the scale.
`footer`	`ReactNode`	None	Footer actions (e.g. Cancel / Confirm buttons).
`closeOnBackdrop`	`boolean`	`true`	Allow closing by clicking the backdrop.
`children`	`ReactNode`	None	Body content.
`className`	`string`	None

* required